fell for a online scam

OP, when the free trials arrive, send them back by registered post, along with a letter stating that you do not wish to continue your subscription to their service and that you do not authorise them to debit any funds from your card. In addition, if there's a 'contact us' section on the site, I'd send them an email stating this also. Keep copies of this corrsepondence.

If/when they do try to debit your account, you can ask your credit company to do what's called a 'chargeback' on your account to try and recover the funds. They may ask for something in writing from you, and this is where your copies of the letter and registered post receipt can come in handy, as you can send copies of these to the CC company to prove that you cancelled your subscription.

In 99% (slight generalisation) of cases where a credit card holder is scammed, the provider should be able to 'flag' certain transactions on your account, and stop them going through. However this is often only the case where the credit card details have been stolen, not given, as in your case.

You were right to cancel the card anyway, just to be on the safe side. Hopefully your bank will have been able to set up a block for that particular retailer, but unfortunately retailers can still charge to cancelled accounts (it's somewhere under the Mastercard/Visa rules and regulations AFAIK) However, you can dispute the charge, and your card provider will have to go back to the retailer and get proof from them of the validity of the transaction. So if this happens with you, you can provide them with your copies of emails, letters etc, proving that you cancelled the service, thus invalidating the transaction. If you get a new card, and they do debit your old one, you should get a seperate statement for your old card account, so at least it will be easy to differentiate between the two.

If they really are scammers, I'd also look out for small, seemingly innocuous transactions on your card. Scammers will often try to put through a transaction for a small amount to 'test' cards before going all out on them. Examining your monthly statements is a good habit to get into, if you don't already do it, and make sure you report anything suspicious to your bank straight away. Most banks have a clause that suspicious transactions have to be reported in a 'timely manner' so if you come back to query something months later, you could be outside the timeframe to raise the query.

The "customer service" folk tried their best to fob them off but they were tough with them and told them thier banks were dealing with the matter and should any more charges incur legal advice shall be sought and so on. Just be tough with them and don't take any of their crap.

Good advice here! Definitely be very firm, and make sure they're under no illusions that you will take it further if they do attempt to charge you. Sorry for the long post, hope it all makes sense. Most important thing is monitor your statements and keep in touch with your bank. Best of luck, and really hope it gets resolved without too much hassle.

helimachoptor wrote: »

Op easiest thing to do is ring your bank and tell them you lost your CC, you may get hit with the first charge from this crowd, but when they try to charge the CC again it'll decline as the CC number has been cancelled.

The only thing is the OP has already phoned their bank and explained the situation, so if they suddenly come back saying they've lost their card it's gonna look a bit suss.